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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Tonight I am going to post about my maternal Grandmother. Grandma Rose has as much to do with my sassy attitude and distaste for slackers as anyone. Grandma Rose weighed in at maybe 100 pounds if she was carrying two buckets of water in the rain. She barely topped five feet in height and was the definition of a fiery redhead.

Grandma Rose was as “cool” of a grandma as one could ever have. When you are in junior high and your grandma picks you up from school in a red Chevy Nova your friends tend to remember. Grandma Rose also had no issue with exceeding the speed limit which later became a built in excuse for me as I amassed my own list of traffic citations.

Grandma Rose knew how to live and embrace life. She was very active and rarely did she seem to be in anything less than a joyous mood. I can only remember one time that I was ever mad at her. My Mom was in the hospital having my youngest sister. Grandma Rose was watching the rest of us at our house. Grandma Rose came out and told me I had a new baby sister and I was not very happy. I was just sure that after having two sisters already that this time it would be a boy. I guess somehow I thought Grandma Rose had the power to decide what gender my siblings were.

One thing that I am truly thankful to Grandma Rose for is her love of fishing, especially ocean salmon and halibut fishing. The very first time I went out on the ocean was because Grandma Rose overruled my parent’s decision that I was too young to go. Grandma Rose did not just love fishing she was damn good at it as well. Many times she was the envy of the whole charter boat for the fish she caught.

The best advice I ever got from Grandma Rose came in my early twenties. I had financially failed in my venture as a potato farmer. In my mind at that time I thought life was basically over. As I talked with her one day about the situation she asked me, “What is wrong with starting over, you are young, healthy and have lots of life left to live.” I responded, “Grandma, to be honest I do not want to be poor.” She immediately laughed and said to me, “Poor is not a financial place, poor is a frame of mind. Do not worry about being poor. Just do not be a poor person to others.”

Grandma Rose also appreciated a good joke. If that joke was a bit off color or naughty that was fine as long as it was funny. As life went on we used to trade jokes on a fairly regular basis. Although she seldom swore herself Grandma Rose was not immune to using a bad word as part of a joke or repeating a story. She once took my cousins to the theater to watch Bruce Willis in “The Last Boy Scout”. I had seen the movie and knew it had a lot of colorful language in it. So the next time I saw her I asked, “Grandma, how did you like The Last Boy Scout? Without even a waver she said in her best Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) voice, “It was a f*ckin great movie!” as she rolled her eyes. I still laugh to this day as I picture her saying that.

Today's real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Bull Thistle aka Cirsium vulgare.

Today’s picture is cow 5909g relaxing in the sunshine with her calf 0909g.